Colin Kaepernick is not happy with the NFL despite the league making an effort to support the Black Lives Matter movement. On Sunday as the NFL kicked off the 2020 season, Kaepernick went to Twitter to call out the league for not really caring about the movement despite letting players kneel during the national anthem and write different slogans on helmets. Also, Kaepernick was wondering why his former teammate, Eric Reid, is still a free agent.
“While the NFL runs propaganda about how they care about Black Life, they are still actively blackballing Eric Reid for fighting for the Black community,” Kaepernick wrote on Twitter. “Eric set 2 franchise records last year, and is one of the best defensive players in the league.” Reed was a member of the Carolina Panthers the last two seasons after spending his first five years with the San Francisco 49ers. After performing well with the Panthers in 2018, Reid signed a three-year, $22 million contract extension in 2019 and finished the year with 120 tackles, four sacks and six passes defended. His tackles and sack total was the most by safety in Panthers history for a single season.
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Reid being a free agent raises an interesting question as he’s been a very consistent safety since entering the league. He kneeled with Kaepernick when both were members of the 49ers in 2016, but unlike Kaepernick, Reid was able to sign with a team once he became a free agent. But why did the Panthers cut Reid after signing him to a contract extension? One reason could be a new head coaching staff looking to rebuild from scratch, which is why Cam Newton and Greg Olsen are gone. However, Newton and Olsen are on new teams (New England Patriots, and Seattle Seahawks), while Reid hasn’t gotten any offers from teams this past offseason.
“My agents have been in communications with teams daily, but there have been no developments,” Reid said to Deadspin. There are teams that could use Reid, but for whatever reason, he’s still a free agent. Washington Football Team head coach Ron Rivera recently told reporters about the impact Reid made on and off the field when he was the head coach for the Panthers.
“One of the things I told our players today is, I had a player in Carolina that made a tremendous impact on me, and that’s Eric Reid,” Rivera said. “The biggest thing that happened there is I listened more so than I did anything else.”
